A freelancer is an independent contractor who is typically hired to do short-term work and earns on a per-job or per-task basis. They are not employees of a company. Freelancers can work for various individuals or companies, unless their contract puts limitations in this respect. They may do their work full-time or part-time, treating it as an additional source of income.

How to become a freelancer?

In order to become a freelancer, an individual needs to:

  • find a suitable platform that facilitates work hunting,
  • build a personal profile,
  • build a professional portfolio,
  • determine the hourly rate and/or a project price,
  • apply for the available freelancing jobs.

In order to be successful as a freelancer and make it a full-time job, it is important to maintain good relationships with the clients, provide good quality work, meet the deadlines, and listen to the instructions.

Advantages of being a freelancer

There are certain advantages to being a freelancer. The most notable ones are:

  • being able to work from home or other non-traditional workspace,
  • having a flexible work schedule,
  • being able to find a better work/life balance.

freelancer working from anywhere in the world

Disadvantages of being a freelancer

The main disadvantage of being a freelancer is not receiving benefits from the employer, such as health insurance or retirement plan. A big downside to working as an independent contractor is also having to deal with the bookkeeping on your own.

Bookkeeping obligations of a freelancer

In order to work legally, freelancers sign contracts with the clients. However, since they are self-employed workers, they do not have their taxes withheld by the company they are doing business with. It means that paying the income tax is a sole responsibility of the freelancer. The accounting duties of self-employed workers consist primarily of:

  • issuing bills and invoices,
  • keeping records,
  • recording documents,
  • generating tax returns,
  • filing declarations to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).

Freelancers in Poland have the freedom of choosing the method of settling their accounts. They may opt to use the Revenue Register or the Income and Expense Book.

accounting

How to organize documents?

Given how freelancers have to deal with their own accounts and are responsible for their business’s bookkeeping, they accumulate a substantial amount of documents. In order to properly organize them and not lose track of important affairs, the independent contract workers are in need of an effective filing system.

The accessories that can make the process much easier are expandable folders and custom binders.

Expandable folders

Expandable folders are one of the most convenient ways to store documents. Depending on the model, they have different spine width and can be equipped with various types of closing mechanisms – elastics, Velcro or magnets.

Folders can also be equipped with compartments to ensure better organization of big amounts of documents, as well as additional elements, such as pen holders.

Custom binders

Custom binders ensure full protection and comfortable organization of all the documents. They allow a better legibility of all stored files and facilitate proper labeling, which leads to much easier access.

They come in any given color palette and in any format, with different widths of spines and with several variants of additional accessories. Custom binders are extremely sturdy, resilient, and durable, which means they can be effectively used for many years.

Rigid-Box is a well-established custom binder manufacturer with many years of experience in the industry. All products from the company’s catalog are very cost-effective, which makes them available even to the freelancers who operate on a limited budget.